Invasion of the Space Invaders is the madwoman in the attic of Amis’ house of nonfiction; many have heard rumors of its shameful presence, but few have seen it with their own eyes. I recently discovered a copy in the library of the university where I work, and I don’t think the librarian knew quite what to make of my obvious excitement at this coup. (“Wow,” I said, giving a low, respectful whistle as she handed it across the counter. “Would you look at that?”)

Kept warm and liquid by heat from the center of the Earth, Lake Vostok, the largest in a chain of about 200 underground (or under-ice) lakes, is similar to the oceans supposed to exist below the surface on moons Enceladus and Europa, which makes this an exciting time to be an astrobiologist.

When I got this e-mail from Bill I could only see the first little bit and I thought it said “What Humbert Humbert Loves” and I was all, “Really, that’s what you want me to post for Valentine’s Day?” Turns out that is not what it is at all. The actual link is to What Humbert Humbert Looks Like (as a Police Composite Sketch) over at The Atlantic, but just in case you still have other Lolita comments to make, here’s a quote from Groucho Marx on the subject:

“I’ll put off reading Lolita for six more years until she turns 18.”

Smart move, Groucho.

Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still write your beloved an old-fashioned love letter. The Telegraph has 5 Rules for writing the perfect romantic epistle from literary heavyweights Hilary Mantel, Alain de Botton and Jeanette Winterson.

Remember to be playful, teasing and funny. There is no particularly necessary link between earnestness and passion. One can amuse someone into bed and into one’s life. (From Alain de Botton)

Don’t draw hearts at the bottom. Henry VIII used to do that, and look how his affairs ended up. (From Hilary Mantel)

One time I spent an entire year writing a thesis about obsession, so I am going to give you my own, less-eclectic list of five books about obsessions so you can read all ten of these books and then feel really gross for about a month afterwards.

Possession, A.S. Byatt

Possession, contrary to the opinion of the Man Booker Prize Committee, is not a great book, but it is a book about obsession, and it does have some pretty interesting ideas about what happens when you let a long-dead author or a very-much-alive lover take over your brain.

Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes

Flaubert’s Parrot is kind of the same as Possession, except instead of having to read crappy poems by made-up Victorian authors, you get to read Flaubert’s hilarious letters, plus it is like a fifth of the size.

Death in Venice, Thomas Mann

If you were wondering why books about obsession make you feel gross, it is because by the end of them you will have spent way too much time in the head of someone who has a certain element of sickness in their psyche. Death In Venice brilliantly creates a suffocating, sickly atmosphere in early 20th-century Venice as the protagonist slowly decays in his obsession with a perfect young boy.

In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time is the essential book about obsession. Full disclosure, I have only read the first volume, but if you have a scholarly interest in the the tradition of books about obsession, this is the one you have to read. It is long, and it is difficult, and should probably get up and take a walk every fifty pages or so just to get out of Proust’s head (or your own), but it is worth it.

The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk

All of Pamuk’s books are kind of about obsession, but this one is the most obvious. People sometimes don’t like it because it’s repetitive and claustrophobic, like Proust, but if you have ever been obsessed with anything enough to collect thousands of old cigarette butts like Pamuk’s protagonist, you know that it is indeed a repetitive and claustrophobic experience. Pamuk’s characters, like the rest of the characters on this list, are obsessed with another person, but they’re also obsessed with the dark and twisting secrets of their city, lending a fascinating other dimension to the classic theme.